Which practices work best to promote the health and vitality of the environment, people, and economy? We have limited resources. They should be used carefully and sensibly.
Which practices work best to promote the health and vitality of the environment, people, and economy? We have limited resources. They should be used carefully and sensibly, while keeping an eye on long-term goals and considering the effects of how they are used. In simplest terms, sustainability is about our children, our grandchildren, and the world each generation inherits.
As a key technology provider to the industry, we are providing important innovations to make change happen in a most sustainable way. For us, sustainability is driven by several deliverables.
Global use of materials is accelerating. It has more than tripled since 1970. Moreover, only 9% of the global economy is circular. Just 9% of the 92.8 billion tons of material that enters the economy is re-used annually.
Modern manufacturing techniques enable the manufacturing of sustainable Wire & Cable and Pipe & Tube products. So, how can we transform regular goods into green products? The most efficient way is to focus on the manufacturing process itself.
Material use
Maillefer offers several ways to improve material utilization in the manufacturing processes. Quality ramp-ups and -downs have been the basis for our line control for decades. Depending on the manufacturing process one can save several percent in raw material consumption, notably when quality production begins immediately once the extrusion line starts to produce.
Controlling the overuse of plastics creates vast opportunities in raw material utilization. Maillefer’s modern extruders open that possibility when minimizing the difference between the nominal and actual product dimensions.
Quality product manufactured within tight tolerances requires less plastic. We have made several studies with our lines in low voltage applications. The extrusion stability combined with our latest development on the automated crosshead centering concept allow us to reach up to ten percent plastic material savings. That corresponds up to 100 tons of plastic material savings on each single extrusion line.
We have introduced new extremely precise cable geometry measurement technology in power cable manufacturing lines. Topography scanning technology together with our smart crosslinking technology (Maillefer Round Concept) enable us to develop the insulation process so that vast material savings are possible to reach. Plus, we have implemented improvements of outer semicon distribution. Combining those two new developments, one can save up to 200 tons of insulation and semicon materials in a single power cable manufacturing line.
Manufacturing efficiency
Manufacturing speeds have always been the main target for production line development. Machine utilization rate is the second key factor for efficiency. A well-maintained line, of high-quality, guarantees high manufacturing utilization rates. Also, quality production has been of interest. Advanced process and quality controls make sure the quality consistency is maintained. Once the line efficiency is maximized, then the energy consumption per end product kilometer is minimized, and as a result, carbon emissions are lessened.
Green energy transformation is creating pressure for efficient manufacturing technologies. We have developed the extrusion process for longer running campaigns, over the years, step-by step. Running lengths are reaching more than 100 tons of insulation material. There is still room for some remarkable improvements. When the efficiency is increase then at the same time the power consumption per produced cable kilometer is reduced. That is mainly because there are less ramp-ups and -downs in total annual length produced.
Introducing smart solutions
The productivity of manufacturing can be increased with higher line speeds. Higher speeds call for more precision. The manufacturing process contains several parameters that the line operator controls during production. The state of the process can be both estimated and controlled by process parameter adjustments. Maillefer offers a modern artificial intelligence-based control solution that assists in both line operation and process parameter optimization tasks. This improves both the production efficiency and the product end-quality. The AI concept offers value to customers and leads to remarkable material savings.
Going one step further, we have introduced the world’s first autonomous cable manufacturing line to the market. Called Smart Buffering, it is dedicated for fiber optic cable manufacturing technology. This autonomous concept controls the process according to the end-product properties. It ensures almost flawless production independent of operator influence. There are material savings on both plastics and fiber. Commercial value of the savings can reach up to 400 k€.
Our impact on sustainability
Maillefer offers technologically advanced production lines. We aim to help our customers to maximize production efficiency and to reduce the scrap in their manufacturing process.
Our installed base is huge - more than 5000 extrusion lines. Annually, from five to seven megatons of plastic material goes through those lines.
The latest technology combined with upgrades can decrease the overuse and scrap amount by almost 10%. That corresponds to an annual plastic material savings equivalent to 600 kilotons of plastics, or more than 1 megatons of carbon dioxide emissions.
There are answers for saving raw materials in remarkable ways and working towards building a more sustainable future. We are pioneering, together, for a premium sustainable production and for one that is transforming the industry.
Markus Boström
Topics: Wire & cable manufacturing, sustainability, green, environment, energy, economy, material, scrap reduction